Rochdale Quality Takes The Win

On a miserable wet afternoon Goole failed to continue their recent run of excellent performances and paid the price against a very lively and talented Rochdale team. This was always going to be a tough test with Connor Walker, Raymond Coates and Matty Lill all unavailable and a new look front row with Chris Wood at hooker and returning Ryan Lamb at prop. In came Reece Almond and Oscar Sugden, plus a new line up on the bench with the return of the youngsters Oli Sugden and Ashton Neal, plus Elliot Harman.
Starting the game on the front foot with off-half Harvey Blyth making his final appearance for the club before he jets off to Australia, it was the home side that looked the more threatening and dominating territory and possession with play in the Rochdale half testing the Rochdale defensive line. In the end the pressure resulted in the first score of the game following good possession from a line out in the Dale 22, strong runs by Jack Smith and James Chantry took play in front of the Rochdale posts, before the ball found its way to Sam Smith. He burst through tackles to score. Rhys Moore was unsuccessful with the conversion, but Goole had their noses in front as a reward for their early dominance. Their early lead was extended on the 17th minute with a penalty from Rhys Moore following further spells in the Rochdale half. 8 – 0.
With possession from the restart, it was now time for Rochdale to show their quality as fast hands gave them a clear run down the centre of the field only to be halted by a last-ditch tackle by Danny Holt. Quick recycled ball continued the attack with Holt once again, with the help of a fast-recovering Chantry, tackling the Rochdale attacker into touch wiping out the corner flag for the referee to award a goal line drop out. The respite did not last long as Rochdale opened their score with a penalty and this was followed by another score as they turned the ball over in their own half to pass out to their winger who showed blistering pace to sprint down the touchline and round under the posts for an opportunist try. The conversion after 23 minutes giving Rochdale the lead. 8 – 10.
Rochdale were now enjoying a spell of dominance with the Goole scrum coming under pressure whilst also being outplayed at the breakdown for the first time in the season. Despite the spell of pressure Goole made their way into the Rochdale half with a clearance kick being fielded by Rhys Moore on halfway. Just one phase later the backs had the ball with Sam Smith giving a lovely inside pass to the supporting Danny Holt to go over for an unconverted try. 13 – 10.
With the clock winding down towards half time, back came Rochdale as Goole conceded a penalty close to their try line that Rochdale. With newfound scrum confidence, they opted for a scrum that was well defended by Goole albeit at the cost of another penalty, this time in front of the posts. Rochdale again declining the kick at goal in favour of another scrum. Goole successfully defended once more despite being under considerable pressure. Ashton Neal latched on to a loose ball from another attacking scrum to run out to the 22 before being tackled to allow Goole to clear once more.
With the injured Oscar Sugden replaced by scrum half Elliot Harman and two forced changes for Rochdale, the game restarted with the away team looking for a score to give them the half time lead. With Goole looking as though they had weathered the storm a penalty was conceded allowing Rochdale to apply more pressure from a line out near the Goole line. Unopposed possession from the line out and two phases later their quality off-half found a gap to go under the posts for a try converted by himself to give Rochdale the half time lead, 13-17. Overall, the score line reflecting the first half exchanges with Goole dominating the first quarter of the match and Rochdale the second.

Goole started the second half lively and after possession from a line out on halfway, the backs showed great passing skills that Sam Smith exploited to find space and put in a lovely grubber kick for the chasing Ollie Pearson. With the ball loose, the supporting Danny Holt, who was playing his best game of the season, managed to get his foot to the ball that disappointingly just went over the in-goal touchline before he could get his hand on it to score. The goal line drop-out gave Goole possession and put-in at a scrum just outside the Rochdale 22 with Ollie Sugden was now on for his first team front row debut in place of Lamb. He could not have chosen a more challenging time to come on against an opposing pack that had the upper hand in the scrums. Unfortunately, Goole lost the messy scrum allowing the Rochdale defenders to kick long into the Goole half to relieve the pressure.
Whilst the first spell in the second half started on an even keel, the game entered a key stage as Rochdale continued to dominate the scrum. Despite being under pressure, Goole held firm albeit with a hard-working scrambled defence at times. Goole made changes to the front row with Lamb returning in place of Wood to try and address the scrum issues, but any hope of improvements was dispelled immediately as Lamb was sin-binned for verbals to the referee. The very next scrum required Wood to return to the front row with Chantry sacrificed, a somewhat puzzling decision with the Goole scrum going backwards. A goal line drop-out gave Goole some respite and they were on the front foot with a tidy inside pass by Moore giving Sam Smith some open ground into the Rochdale half. Unfortunately, the final pass to the supporting Eddie Newsum went to ground and the chance was lost. Goole were now finding their feet and taking the game to Rochdale winning a penalty 15m inside the Rochdale half and advantage being played. With Goole moving the ball towards the right wing they got nowhere near the gain line and lost 10m of ground yet inexplicably the referee called, advantage over, just before Goole lost the ball. Rochdale then kick deep into the Goole half forcing Oli Pearson to slide and gather the ball into his own in-goal area for a 5m attacking scrum for Rochdale. Then, with only 7 in the scrum against dominant opposition, the inevitable happened as they were easily pushed backwards providing the easiest pick up and score you could wish for. The successful conversion stretching Rochdale’s lead to 13 – 24 as the game moved in to its final quarter.
With Lamb and Chantry returning and an eight-man scrum again, parity returned but that didn’t prevent Goole losing consecutive lineouts and possession to Rochdale to score their fourth try to secure the game albeit a try that Goole would be disappointed to concede after some rare weak tackling. 13 – 31 with ten minutes remaining. Despite the efforts of the home side, they were coming up against a well organised Rochdale defence and breaks into open ground were at a premium with the Smith brothers being the main threat. The general outcome being that Goole went through numerous phases but in the end were penalised either for a knock-on, or forward pass thereby giving Rochdale quality ball and the opportunity to pin Goole back to their own half. The long low grubber kicks deep behind the Goole defensive line by the experienced Rochdale off half being particularly effective. In the end with no more scoring the whistle blew and Rochdale came out as worthy winners in challenging conditions.

Goole can look at player unavailability and the on-field player and positional disruptions as being a factor why they failed to perform to the high level of their previous games this season, but credit where credit is due, Rochdale were the better team on the day. However all eyes will now be on what looked like a nasty injury to Jack Smith late in the game but with no league game next week it should hopefully give him time to recover ready for the next away game at Scarborough.